Josephine K. Linquist

Josephine "Jo" K. Linquist, 95, of Sioux City passed away Friday, Dec. 15, 2006, at a local hospital following a brief illness.

Services will be 10 a.m. Monday at First United Methodist Church, 1915 Nebraska St. Private family graveside services will be in Memorial Park Cemetery. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. today, with the family present 6 to 8 p.m., at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel.

Jo was born in Haakon County, S.D., on Sept. 23, 1911, the seventh of eight children, to Charles August and Josephine Christina (Nordstrom) Anderson on the family homestead. She attended a one-room country school and Black Hills Teachers College in Spearfish, S.D., to obtain her state teaching certificate. She then taught in a one-room country school in South Dakota for 10 years.

During that time, she met her future husband, Raymond Nels Linquist, whom she married at the Presbyterian Church of Rapid City, S.D., in 1941. Jo and her new husband left immediately for their new home in Sioux City, where they resided until Raymond passed away on Dec. 16, 1982. During the early years, Jo was a homemaker, active in Boy Scouts as a den mother with her sons, Mark and Lee. She taught Sunday school, worked in church circles, affiliated with Amity Circle at First Methodist Church.

She returned to college and received her bachelor of arts in elementary education from Briar Cliff University, with graduate work at Morningside College and the Univeristy of South Dakota. Her first 12 years of teaching with the Sioux City Public School system was at Webster Elementary School and the last four at Grant Elementary School, retiring in 1976.

She was a member of Sioux City Education Association, IACE, IRA and ADK Gamma Chapter. She always followed a saying by H. Adams, "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." Upon retiring, she cared for her husband until his death in 1982, and continued to perfect her baking and cooking skills. During the past few years, Jo had been a resident of Holy Spirit Retirement Center in Sioux City. Her greatest love was people and making a day a happier one because she was there.

Survivors include her son, Mark and his wife, Judy of Sioux City; grandchildren, Nicole and Courtney Lidman; and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; a son, Lee Linquist; four brothers, Elmer, George, Charles and Roy Anderson, all of South Dakota; and three sisters, Myrtle O'Berempt, Geneva Faye Lightheiser and Esther Saxer Darling, also of South Dakota.